Words Hurt but Criticism Helps

The puncture wound left from a barrage of harsh words is something that I as a creator have had to deal with. When I’m honest with myself, it is something that has kept me from doing certain other things, like making a YouTube channel. I do think that words can hurt, but I ‘ve come to understand two main things.

The first thing that I’ve learned is that criticism is different from malicious bashing. I have written about this before, but I feel that I’ve had even more experience with criticism. Lets look at comments made with malicious intent and the context behind it. And I’m not just talking about the poorly written troll comments, that’s far too easy to write off and ignore. But there are people who write reviews and comments that are more meant to hurt the creator. However, these comments shouldn’t be confused with constructive criticism. With criticism, it can be a little off- putting, especially if you didn’t ask for it. I try to see it a positive thing. There is someone who sees something that they enjoy in your work, but wanted to note how to make it better. I don’t normally share my more personal works, but I do share my fanfiction. I’ve gotten people who give criticism and it generally helps me in future chapters. Criticism is designed to help with problems that the creator themselves may not be able to see.

The second thing was something that touched on in the previous paragraph. It can be summed down to simply “ignore the haters”. With criticism, the end goal is to better the creator, even it comes off as harsh. A hate comment has no means to better the creator. Hate comments lack advice on how to fix or make what they find displeasing in a work better. But there is something that I had to make note of whenever I post anything. Everything isn’t for everyone. Not everyone is going to like what I create. There may be a lack in advice for a particularly harsh comment because they don’t see a benefit or value in what they’re commenting on. I’ve learned to simply be less defensive about both less than positive comments and criticism and to simply try to be more reflective.

We were talking about this at work today. Some leaders do a great job of providing constructive feedback both positive and negative (criticism.) When negative feedback is presented the right way, it can be powerful vehicle of improvement. If negative feedback is delivered in the wrong way, it is horribly destructive. Great post!